The Hawk and The Phoenix
by H.G.F.E
Summary: Rex Stewart grew up surrounded by love, after suffering a heart break he decided that love wasn't made for him, until he met his match. Nailah Leit grew up in the streets with strange powers that no one understood, always defending herself from other people with no one to turn to, until she meets the person that shows her what love is all about.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The ceremony had been nice; all the new recruits had passed their training and were ready to be sent out on missions. Rex Stewart AKA Warhawk sat on the bleaches looking at all the families around him, he still remember his ceremony, but that had been more than ten years ago.

"Why are you here all by yourself?" he smiled at his sister, she was a force to be reckon with and almost everybody was scared of her "I thought you had gone home already"

"No, J'onn needed to talk to me" He was supposed to continue with the training of two of the new recruits, that and he didn't want to be at his house by himself "How is Aliyah doing?"

"She is fine, well as fine as one can be when your stomach is bigger than a beach ball" Rex resisted the urge to laugh, Kaya and Aliyah were identical twins, but they only look alike on the outside, they were completely different people. Aliyah was sweet, calm and always tried to solve things peacefully, now Kaya was the exact opposite, she was always yelling at people, had a very short temper and she believed that the best way to solve a problem was kick someone's butt "She is happy, so that's all that matters"

"That's good, I'm glad she is ok"

"How are you?" he raised an eyebrow at her, everybody asked that lately and he didn't feel like talking "I mean about Mareena"

"I know what you meant and I'm fine" a year ago he had believed himself in love, but Mareena had chosen to marry another man and now ruled Atlantis beside him, she was pregnant "You guys don't need to check up on me, I know that she is with someone else"

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry" for a moment he felt bad for being curt with her, she was his older sister and she worried about him just like he worried about her "I just wanted to make sure you were doing ok"

"I'm fine, I moved on"

"If by that you meant you went out with Black Swan I don't think that's considered moving on, that's sleeping with someone else" she looked to her left and groaned "and talking about the devil"

"She is not that bad"

"Talk for yourself" the other woman stood in front of them and Aliyah smiled "Hey Swan"

"Is Black Swan"

"Believe me I know" with that his sister left them alone.

He and Eliza had gone out for a while until she had wanted to move things a little too fast, they had gone out a couple of times and they had ended in bed together, but she had wanted to take the next step and he wasn't ready for that. She wasn't a bad person she was just spoiled rotten

"Hi" he tried to sound neutral so she wouldn't get any ideas "Do you need something?"

"Yes" she gave him a flirtatious smile and batted her eyelashes "I wanted to invite you to have dinner with me tomorrow night, I already reserved the table at the restaurant"

"Dinner?" he didn't want to hurt her feelings, it was a good thing he had an excuse to decline "I can't, I have to start training with two new recruits tomorrow"

"Can't you get out of it?"

"No I can't" he stood up and walked to the door "Just invite someone else"

He didn't wait for her to answer and kept walking. Eliza was Green Arrow and Black Canary's daughter and she thought sun set on her. He walked out of the door without looking where he was going until he slammed into someone. He looked down to see, well he couldn't see a lot of her, but there wasn't any doubt it was a woman.

"I'm sorry" he extended his hand to help her up "Are you ok?"

"Don't you look where you are going?" she slapped his hand and stood up glaring daggers at him "You could hurt someone"

Her custom was bright red almost orange and clung to her like a second skin, he couldn't say exactly but the fabric looked really weird, kind of metallic, the mask she had on covered her entire face, he couldn't see her eyes or even her hair. He knew he was starting, but he couldn't help it she looked scary and her attitude didn't help.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking"

"Whatever"

She shook her head and walked away. Rex almost laughed, he hadn't really laughed in a year, but that girl reminded him of his mother.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Are you ready for another day of training?" Nailah looked behind her to see Mike almost jumping in excitement, she didn't see why he was so happy, it was just training "We got Warhawk as our mentor"

"Then where is he?" they've been in the training room for ten minutes and he was nowhere to be found "They said seven"

Before Mike could answer the doors open and a very tall man walked into the room, he seemed stunned for a moment when he saw her and she cursed under her breath. He had on a silver armor with silver metallic wings, a mask covered the upper half of his face and there was a big hawk symbol on his chest.

He walked farther into the room and the doors closed behind him, he was the one that had crashed into her yesterday and the fact that she snapped at him didn't help her situation right now.

"I'm going to guess that you are Shadow" Mike nodded and swallowed looking nervous, the man looked at her "and you are Phoenix"

"Yes sir"

"I'm Warhawk" he moved to the middle of the room and stood over the mats, he turned to Mike and signaled him to move forward "We are going to start by testing your combat level, you are not allowed to use your powers during this exercise, it'll be just hand to hand combat"

Mike moved until he stood in front of the other man, he looked like he was about to faint. The fighting started and less than a minute later it was over, Mike was laying on the floor the breath knocked out of him.

"Shadow we need to work on your combat skills, you can go sit down" he looked at her "Phoenix is your turn now"

This was not how she had wanted to start the day; she moved forward until she stood in front of him, the fighting began. He threw a punch at her and she moved to the left kicking out her leg and hitting him on the stomach, the fighting went on for a couple of minutes, she was getting tired and she had to admit he was good and she was losing. The bench that was holding the weights fell and that was all the distraction she needed, he looked to the side and she kicked him as hard as she could sending him flying until he hit the wall.

"I win"

"The only reason you won was because I was distracted" he stood up glaring at her "It was just a test, you weren't supposed to attack me while I was distracted"

"In real life you can't afford to be distracted" he pushed all her buttons and she didn't like it, just like she didn't like feeling she had at the defensive "It was a test and you should have known that getting distracted while fighting will be fatal, and is not my fault I won"

"We can have a rematch" he looked behind her and frowned "Shadow, what are you doing?"

"Picking up the weights sir" Mike looked guiltily at them "It was my fault they fell"

"Don't worry about it we have more important things to do" he took them to the monkey bars, those things were huge, the bars almost reached the ceiling and they went from one corner of the room to the other one "Who wants to go first?"

They spent two hours on the monkey bars and still couldn't do them in the time Warhawk wanted. They trained without stopping for hours; around two o'clock in the afternoon they went to have lunch. She and Mike sat with Hunter.

"How is your training going?" Hunter asked Mike and laughed when the other guy looked like he wanted to cry "I'll guess you don't like it"

"Is torture" Mike put his head on the table "I swear he wants to kill us"

"Who do you got?"

"Warhawk" Nailah answered "He is very strict"

"That's because you haven't met his sister" Hunter shook his head and pointed his fork at her "She is crazy, she'll kill us before training is over"

"I didn't know he had a sister" she also didn't know why she cared "Who is she?"

"Hawkgirl" she frowned, why did that name sounded familiar? Hunter must have seen her questioning look because he explained "Hawkgirl is one of the seven original members, some people thought she had betrayed Earth"

"Of course, the Thanagarian invasion" Mike sat up and looked excitedly at them "It was said she was kicked out of the league, but the truth was she resigned and a couple of years later after she came back to the league a video showing her innocence came out"

"She didn't betray Earth, she didn't even knew what the Thanagarians had planned" Hunter took another bite and kept talking "she helped the league fight the Thanagarians and saved the planet"

"Why did her daughter took the name?" for some reason that didn't make sense.

"I don't know" Hunter answered "but they are a lot alike"

The rest of the day passed in a blur, when they retired for the day there wasn't a place in her body that didn't hurt, they were supposed to meet Warhawk the next day at seven to continue with their training, so they went to bed early.

"It was two o'clock in the morning when she gave up on falling asleep, she wasn't sleeping well lately. She got up and put on her custom, the hallways were empty, she went into one of the training rooms and started hitting the punching bag, she lost track of time until a noise made her look to the door, she stopped punching the bag; Warhawk was standing there an odd look on his face, she wondered how long he's been there?

"Do you need something?"

"No I was going to my room and I noticed the light" he walked into the room "What are you doing awake?"

"What are you doing awake?" why did he thought he had the right to question her? "I wasn't aware I had to report my nocturnal habits to you?"

"You don't, but we have training tomorrow" he walked a little closer to her and crossed his arms over his chest "maybe you should go back to your room"

"And maybe you should mind your own business" she didn't know what was about him that rubbed her wrong, but every time he got close she felt on edge and she didn't like the feeling "I'll be in training tomorrow so you don't have to worry"

"I could hold the bag" he moved a little closer and her breathing accelerated, damn it "It'll be easier to hit it that way"

"I don't need your help" he raised an eyebrow "Ok let me rephrase that, I don't want your help"

He laughed and she just wanted to punch him, but instead she just raised her head and left the room. Infuriating man!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"What the hell was that?" Rex couldn't remember a time he had been so mad, but the woman in front of him tried his patience "Are you crazy?"

"That was us winning the fight" Phoenix was still on fire, literally, from when she had blasted Supremo "You were too busy to notice he was about to kill you"

"We are going to the Watchtower and finish this conversation there" he confirmed they were ready to be teleported "We are not finished"

"Yes we are"

A moment later they were standing in the monitor room, Phoenix turned around to leave.

"I can't believe you did that" she kept walking until she was almost at the door "We were supposed him not kill him"

"I didn't kill him" she was furious, her hands were fisted at her side "If you remember you wouldn't let me do that, you should be thankful"

"Thankful?" she was losing her mind "For what? Blowing the mission out of proportion?"

"For saving your sorry life" they were face to face and he resisted the urge to laugh, the top of her head only reached his chin, but he had to recognize she had quite a temper "I wouldn't have intervene if you hadn't been so damns stupid, I told you to jump left"

"I did" he was yelling now "and almost got blasted for it"

"I was talking about my left" she threw up her hands "but you were too busy to pay attention to what I was saying"

"You need to be protected before you get yourself killed"

"I don't need your protection" she walked out of the door and yelled over her shoulder "I know what I'm doing; Idiot!"

He was stunned, there was no other word for it, she didn't back down from a fight not even if the odds were against her. He had to admit that during month they had been training he enjoyed sparring with her; she was fun even if she thought that the best solution for everything was violence. He turned around and came to a dead stop. His mom, his dad, Flash, Superman and J'onn were starting at him, grinning like idiots.

"What?"

"You two have an interesting relationship" his dad hid his laugh behind a caugh "Are you two always like that?"

"She is the most stubborn woman I had the misfortune to meet" that part was true "I don't know why she always has to do the exact opposite of what I say"

"So I take that you like her?" hadn't his mom heard him, but then of course Shayera would like her, the two woman were exactly alike "You have enough chemistry to light up the entire New York city"

"I remember two people that were exactly like that" he looked questioningly at his uncle Wally, he just laugh "Your mom and dad were exactly like that, they were always fighting for the most stupid things"

"Yeah well there is a difference between us" they were nothing like his mom and dad, John and Shayera loved each other, He and Phoenix hadn't killed each other because they hadn't had chance "We are not married"

"Don't worry give it time" Rex glared at J'onn, why were they defending her, she was the crazy the one "I'll give you a week"

"You can give a thousand and I'll never be with her"

He turned around and left them laughing, why did they thought he was interested in Phoenix? He hadn't even seen her face; he had to admit she had a very nice body, ok she was had an extremely amazing body, but that didn't made up for the fact she was insane. She was an excellent fighter and would do anything to finish the mission successfully, but for some reason they just couldn't get along.

Rex sighed, but the truth was that since he'd been with her he hadn't even thought about Mareena, and the truth was that he didn't feel anything for the woman anymore, except for friendship. He had thought that he wouldn't be able to forget Mareena, but apparently he had been wrong.. Mareena was just a memory now, Damn it he hated when his father was right,


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"I can't believe you got hurt" that had been his mother favorite phrase for the past twenty minutes, Rex rolled his eyes, you would think his mother would show him a little sympathy, what happen to motherly love? "What were you thinking?"

"I got distracted" he knew he sounded defensive, but it felt like he was being interrogated.

"You got distracted?" Kaya was very surprised and he couldn't blame her, he never got distracted during a fight, it was like the whole world faded away, but not this time "How did that happen?"

"I was worried about one of the team members" at their surprised look he defended himself "She is new, just out of training"

"Would this be the same girl that saved your life?" His father had that knowing look in his eyes and Rex couldn't help the blush that covered his face, his mother and sister were questioningly at his dad "Phoenix, after Supremo hit him and he fell unconscious Phoenix stood in front of him and erected a fire wall around them, that was why he could get there I time"

"Why were you worried about her?" that was the same question he asked himself a thousand times "For what I've seen she is very good"

"I can't believe you like her" Rex glared at Kaya, but she just laughed, he needed to teach her to mind her own business "you said she was annoying"

"You like her?" his mom was grinning and Rex wanted to smack himself on the head, maybe if he was unconscious they would leave "What does her face looks like?"

"I don't know" they looked surprised, but so was he. He had never seen an inch of her skin, her costume covered her from head to toe, you couldn't even see her eyes, and the only thing you could tell was that she had a nice body; ok an amazing body, but he couldn't tell anything else "I've never seen her without her costume"

"What do you know about her?" he shook his head and his mom frowned "maybe we should investigate her background"

Rex opened his mouth to tell his mother to leave it alone when a knock interrupted him.

"Can I come in?"

He had to keep himself from smiling; his parents and sister were very interested in the person at the other side of the door.

"Sure Phoenix come in"

The door slid open and Rex felt like a truck had slammed into him.

"I just wanted to know how you were doing, last time I was here you were still unconscious" she moved closer to the bed. He knew he should answer, but he just couldn't find his voice; she was gorgeous. She was dressed in black jeans and a strapless pink top, her skin was creamy white, strawberry blond hair fell in curls to her waist, but what caught his attention were her eyes, they were violet, not blue, but a bright violet; and she wa frowning at him "Are you ok? You look weird"

"I'm fine" that had come out way too fast "I'm ok thanks for asking"

"Good"

His mom cleared her throat and Rex winced.

"Phoenix that's my mom Shayera, my dad John and my sister Kaya, guys this is…" he thought for a second, hell he didn't even know her name "Phoenix"

"Is a pleasure to meet you" she sounded sweet and that was weird.

"Likewise" his father was always polite "Is Phoenix your real name?"

"No, my name is Nailah"

"Do you have a last name?" his mother however didn't know the definition of polite, Nailah nodded and after a few seconds Shayera let out an irritated breath "Well? Are you going to tell us?"

"If you ask politely" Shayera narrowed her eyes and Rex wanted to groan, the two woman were too much alike to get along, Nailah smiled coldly at his mother "The word please goes a long way"

"Do you even know who I am?"

"Shayera Stewart-Hol" she didn't seem faced by his mother threating position "former Hawkgirl and lieutenant of the Thanagarian Empire, also believed to have betrayed Earth, of course the rumor was cleared a few years later, did I forget something?"

"You seem to know a lot about me, but you don't even want to give me your last name"

"Well your life was pretty public for a while" this was not going well "If you had asked for my last name politely I would have given it to you"

"Well I need to know more about you if you want to go out with my son"

"MOM!" Rex wanted a hole to open up and swallowed him "What the hell?"

"Shayera maybe we should go" his father moved, but his mom didn't even move.

"What makes you think I want to go out with him?" This just kept getting worse, he was going to kill his mother "I've never said that"

"Good" he could feel the ice dripping from his mother's voice "then we won't have a problem"

"I guess we won't" Nailah turned to him and smiled "I'm glad you are ok and that the blast didn't so any permanent damage, I'll see you around"

Rex waited until the door closed behind her and turned to his mother, he was furious.

"Seriously?" she didn't look sorry, she just raised an eyebrow and he had to count to keep his temper in check "Why did you do that?"

"She needs to be more respectful"

"Respectful?" it was a good thing he was hooked to an IV, he knew that if he hurt his mother's feelings his dad would kick his butt "You were the one who started it, she just came to see how I was doing and instead of thanking her for saving your son's life you interrogated her and you were rude"

"We need to know more about her" his mom sat on the bed and took one of his hands, he had to resist the urge to snatch it away "Look I know you like her, more than that you've ever liked anyone, I don't want what happen with Marina to happen again"

"She is not like Marina mom, she is a completely different person" he couldn't stay mad at her for long "and just because I like her doesn't mean I'm going to fall for her"

"Oh! Please!" she rolled her eyes and stood up "Yes it does and you are going to do something stupid, after all you are your father's son"

"HEY!" John was offended "What is that supposed to mean?"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Nailah shook her head and resisted the urge to laugh, Mike was hanging upside down stuck in one of the nets, but the funny part was that the only thing he had on was a pair of care bears boxers.

"I would ask, but I don't think I need to" he looked at her with pleading eyes and she moved forward "Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?"

"I could ask you the same thing" he moved and the net tightened even more "Could you help me?"

She helped him get out the trap; he gave a sigh a relief and hugged her.

"I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't come along"

"You would probably be stuck until morning and then everyone would have seen your undies" she laughed, she just couldn't help it "Really? Care Bears? Didn't they have grown man underwear?"

"Hahaha, very funny" his face was red and he looked uncomfortable, he looked toward the net "Someone forgot to put this one away after training"

"Don't worry you can go to sleep, I'll put it away"

"Thanks"

Nailah looked at the net and laughed; only Mike would get stuck there in his underwear. She put the net away and walked to one of the windows, one of the things she loved most about living in the watchtower was the view, she loved the stars, her father had loved the stars too, but like everyone else in her life he too was also gone.

"That's a very serious look" she jumped and turned around, Rex smiled "Why are you sad?"

"I'm not sad" Why was he here? "Aren't you supposed to be in bed? You were hurt badly, you should be resting"

"I feel fine and that bed was killing me" he looked out of the window and then back at her "Do you ever sleep?"

"Sometimes" a lot less than she cared to admit actually "I don't need much sleep"

"I wanted to apologize" now that was a surprised, what did he have to apologize for? "My mom was very rude to you; try not to take it personal she is rude to everybody"

"Is ok I'm used to it" she gave a smile to reassure him "and you are not the one that has to apologize, your mom is"

"Good luck with that" he was quiet for a moment "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure"

"Why did you tell her you would never go out with me?"

"I never said that" she knew the question was coming she just hadn't expected it so soon "I said I didn't want to go out with you"

"Why not?"

"Did you really just asked me that?" damn it why did he had to be so charming? Why couldn't she just find him annoying like she did most people? "For once we barely know each other and we can't even be in the same room for five minutes without trying to kill each other, we are always fighting"

"We get along" at her raised eyebrow he smiled "Most of the time"

"Look we don't like each other that way" she looked back at him and almost jumped out of her skin, he was standing very close to her, invading her personal space, she looked up at his face and swallowed "What are you doing?"

"I'm proving your theory wrong" he lowered his head until their lips were a breath apart "We do like each other"

He didn't give her time to react, he kissed her like there was no tomorrow, Nailah moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck letting him deepened the kiss; holly God, she had been kissed before but never like this, it felt like he was consuming her; the reasonable part of her mind was yelling at her to stop, the other part was telling her to enjoy it. The next she knew her back was against the wall, he bit her lip and her mind turned to mush, the kiss just kept going on forever.

"Are you going to accept my invitation?" he was asking her between kisses, but she couldn't process what he was saying, good thing he clarified "have dinner with me"

"I wasn't aware you had asked me?" she licked his lip smiling when he groaned "You forgot that small detail"

"Ok, have dinner with me tomorrow night" he didn't stop kissing her "Please

"Ok, but don't tell anyone" he stopped kissing her and scowled "I don't want people interfering, if things work out you can tell however you want"

"You want us to hide?" he sounded mad and she didn't understand why, he moved away from her and she righted her pajamas "Why?"

"I just told you why, it won't be for long" she run a hand through her hair "I'm not embarrassed if that's what you are thinking, I just want to take things slow and as you can tell your mother doesn't like me and I don't want to fight with her from the start"

"I can understand that" he smiled and let out a sigh of relieve, he kissed her again, this time slow, taking his time "Be ready at six and wear a dress"

He left before she could answer him, Nailah smiled to herself, maybe she wasn't so bad after all, maybe people could like her for herself even if she wasn't the nicest person; she didn't lose anything by trying. Tomorrow she would give herself a chance to be happy.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

_Three weeks later_

An explosion shook the house and John threw himself at the floor. What the hell? Was someone attacking them? He stood up and walked to the kitchen, the smell reached him first, and it stank. He walked closer and could see the smoke, he heard someone cursing when he stepped in, the walls were covered in something gooey and black, part of the stove was still on fire, he looked at the celling and his eyes widened, three cooking pots were stuck.

"This sucks" his wife was covered in something black, part of her hair was pointing up, she looked like something out of a horror movie "Damn it"

"What happen?" he walked toward her and grabbed the counter; the floor was also covered in the gooey stuff "What's this mess?"

"I was trying to cook"

"You were trying to…" John had to stop himself; if he laughed she would hit him with her maze "Why?"

"Well the kids are supposed to come over for dinner today and I wanted to cook" she sighed and opened one of the cabinets, grabbed a little towel and cleaned her face "Who knew cooking was so dangerous?"

"Cooking is not dangerous" he covered his mouth and took a deep breath "Baby I think the danger is you"

"John Stewart are you telling me I can't cook?" he took a step back at her tone, he was not telling her the truth; all of a sudden she smiled at him and shrugged "Is true, I blame you for that"

"What?" the woman was insane "How is that my fault? You are the one who doesn't know how to cook"

"Well you never tried to teach me" she ran the towel through her hair making it worse; she gave an exasperated sigh "What am I supposed to do now? The children will be here in a couple of hours"

"We'll order the food" there was no way he was eating if she cooked, he'll end up dead "I'll clean-up"

"Aw thanks" she walked up to him and wrapped him in a hug, he smiled and hugged her back, not caring that she was covered in the black stuff "I love you"

"I love you too" he gave her a kiss and wrinkled his nose "Baby you stink; go take a shower while I clean-up"

"Fine"

He waited until he heard her footsteps upstairs and started laughing; only Shayera could make cooking dangerous.

An hour and a half later the kitchen was completely clean, the only thing left were the three big holes in the celling, but that would have to wait.

"Wow this looks awesome" he turned around, Shayera was standing in the doorway, she was dress in jeans and a black sweater, her hair was in a ponytail and he found himself smiling. It didn't matter how many years they've been together every time he saw her he lost his breath and his heart filled with love all over again, she was his angel "that ring of yours comes in handy for more than just fighting"

"Yes. The food is already here and I set up the table" she gave him a brilliant smile, walked forward and took his hand, he forgot to breathe again "you look beautiful"

"Thanks" she kissed him "you look pretty good yourself"

She kissed him, sometimes he forgot they been together for more than thirty years, every time he saw her it was like seeing her for the first time, he discovered something new about her every day. They were so wrapped up in the kiss they didn't notice the person watching them.

"If you want I can come back later" John broke the kiss and looked at his son, that's what happened when you had kids, no time alone even when they didn't live with you anymore.

"Rex I'm pretty sure I thought you how to knock"

"I did, four times" Rex moved closer to them and hugged his mother then him "but you guys were too busy to notice"

"We are never too busy for you" Shayera smiled at Rex.

"Don't tell him that" John shook his head, giving Shayera a playful glare "He'll think he can come by anytime he wants"

"I can come by anytime I want" Rex hugged his mother again "Right mom?"

"That's right, you…." She frowned and turned around; she stood on her tiptoes, put her nose on Rex's neck and took a deep breath. She looked at him and frowned "Why do you smell like vanilla?"

Rex let her go like she had burned him and took a step back.

"I don't know what you mean"

"Yes you do" she narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips "Rex Stewart, have you been seeing someone and keeping it from me?"

"No" Rex looked at him asking for help "I'm not seeing anyone"

"Yes you are, tell me who she is" things were about to get bad for Rex, Shayera didn't gave up when she wanted something "I know that smell, I've smelled it before"

"Of course you have is vanilla, everybody knows what it smells like"

"You know what I mean"

"Well I'm happy you are seeing someone" she smiled at him "is about time you gave me some grandchildren"

"Mom" Rex put the kitchen island between them "Aliyah is giving you a grandchild already, you don't need any more and I'm not seeing anyone"

"Come on, tell me who she is" the woman was like a pit bull with a bone "Is she pretty? Is she a superhero? Do I know her? Most important, would I like her?"

"Shayera leave the boy alone already?" Rex looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here, he knew his mother wouldn't give up "he'll tell us when he is ready"

"Fine" she actually pouted, he knew she wasn't giving up "I'll find out myself"


End file.
